Comfort Food
by MidKnight Rider
Summary: After the events of Bane, Daniel notices something about Teal'c that is a little 'off'. He convinces Jack to help.


**This is a tag to Bane. Daniel notices something odd about Teal'c afterwards. Inspired by Bethanyactually asking me for a "Jack and Daniel Do Lunch" series. Thanks to her and to Bluemoonmaverick for the Beta.**

**(0)**

"He doesn't want to talk about it," Jack said firmly. He and Daniel and Teal'c were hiking over yet another hill on P3-yada-yada, following Sam and her certainty that the mineral deposits they were looking for were just over the next hill. She was just ahead of them, walking with Teal'c, engrossed in her work and utterly silent about any progress.

Unlike Daniel who, in spite of twenty-three languages, seemed to have never run into any phrases about silence being golden.

"He never wants to talk," Daniel said. "It doesn't make it healthy."

"It doesn't make it unhealthy," Jack pointed out.

"To sin by silence makes cowards of men," Daniel quoted.

"Are you calling Teal'c a coward?"

"NO!" Daniel said, shocked. Under his breath he muttered, "There are easier ways to commit suicide than calling Teal'c a coward."

"Yep," Jack agreed.

They continued to hike. After hunting all over the Springs for Teal'c, trying to find him before he transformed into a giant swarm of bugs, this was normal. The scrunch of their boots in the grass sounded normal. Doing simple recon was normal. Daniel being tenacious and annoying was normal. Daniel shutting up and letting this go would be better, but that wasn't going to happen. So that was normal too.

Jack sighed. Somehow recon on a planet thousands of light years from home while discussing a giant insect attack on another planet was normal.

"You don't want to talk about it either," Daniel observed.

"Nope."

"But –"

"And still don't."

"But there's –"

"And still!"

"He almost became a giant bug, Jack!"

Jack whirled around, resisting the instinct to bring the P90 up and point it in Daniel's face. "I can save Teal'c the trouble of killing you if I just do it myself."

Daniel swallowed but he still just didn't have any idea how to stop himself once he got wound up.

"He won't eat," Daniel said.

The anger faded out of Jack abruptly, and with it the ability to keep walking. He came to a halt. He had noticed that too and decided that maybe he just wasn't seeing Teal'c eat. Daniel took Jack's silence as permission to continue.

"You know his 'light' snacks are more than I eat in two days and I haven't been able to get him to take so much as a bite of anything but chocolate. Who knows what he may have been compelled to eat when he was … you know, transforming. Frasier says there's no reason for him to be refusing food. But he just won't eat. I think we should talk to him, find out what's going on…."

"Okay," Jack said.

"I mean it's just not – what? Okay?"

"We'll do something about it."

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Yes?"

"God damn it, Daniel-"

"Okay!"

Jack turned and resumed walking. "We'll take him out to lunch. What's that place with the buffalo fries that he likes?"

"The Dive."

"That the one on Pikes Peak Avenue?"

"Yeah."

Jack nodded as if it was decided.

"Okay?" Daniel asked, still not quite certain he had won.

"Okay!" Jack snapped. "But you're paying."

"For what?" Daniel asked, still certain he was in trouble and had done something wrong.

"The burgers and fries."

"Plural? All of them?"

"This is your idea."

"Talking is my idea. Lunch is yours."

"You're not a starving student, Daniel. You can afford it."

"But I –"

"No arguments."

Daniel sighed. "Okay," he said, finally.

(0)

It occurred to Daniel as he walked into The Dive in the wake of Jack and Teal'c that Jack hadn't actually agreed to talk. He had said they would do something about 'it' and that they would take Teal'c out to lunch.

They were not taking him out to lunch so much as forcing him to go on the orders of his CO – namely, Colonel Jack O'Neill. Technically Jack wasn't really capable of giving Teal'c any kind of order. The Jaffa was an adjunct advisor serving in a military capacity and assigned to SG1.

But he chose to follow Jack's orders and he didn't fail to do so now. Teal'c trusted Jack and had shown that he often didn't need to understand his orders before following them. As the months and missions had passed they had established a bond that appeared unbreakable.

Daniel wondered if being pushed past the events on BP6-3Q1 was something Teal'c needed and wouldn't ask for. He was a warrior, a hard man who had lived among hard men, in a brutal way of life under a cruel and capricious master. Teal'c had led armies, watched men fighting and dying for a god for no better reason than that it had always been that way.

Jack had been blunt with Teal'c. After the debriefing about the mineral deposits on P3 yada-yada – that Carter actually had found after trekking over four or five hills – Jack had told Teal'c to get into something civilian, grab a hat, and meet them in the parking lot.

"Why?" The Jaffa had hedged the order for only the briefest moment.

"You're not eating," Jack said, bluntly.

"I have not been hungry."

"Uh-huh," Jack said, turning away but maintaining rigid eye contact until the last second. Sometimes even Teal'c forgot how formidable their team leader was. "I'll meet you in the parking lot. My truck. I'm driving."

They had found Teal'c waiting for them, standing by the truck like a mountain in the wind. He still didn't understand the Tauri tradition of eating in groups and at places especially designed for that purpose. But he had learned to go alone with it.

The drive hadn't been so bad. Sam had begged off, wanting to start running tests on the samples they'd brought back and Jack had let her off the hook. Daniel had talked about the scrolls they had found on their last mission and how incredible they were and how it might lead to a better understanding of the parallels between Egyptian and Inca civilizations and no one had told him to shut up. Not even once.

They had been given a corner table and menus. The waitress brought drinks – beer and fruit punch (which raised her eyebrow but wasn't enough to stop her from giving all of them a flirty smile.)

Trying to tempt Teal'c's appetite, Daniel changed his mind at least a dozen times, extolling the virtues of each item - from the ribs and bar-be-cue sandwich to the suicide burger, which was infused with pepper jack cheese and hot sauce. The latter prompted Jack to ask, "Is there anything you won't eat?"

Daniel considered it seriously. Then shook his head. "Depends on the circumstances. I've eaten all kinds of things. Silk worms, ant eggs, starfish, durian -."

"Durian?" Jack asked.

"It's a fruit that smells like dirty socks."

"Were you _that_ curious?" Jack demanded.

Daniel shrugged. "I was hungry."

"You really are -," Jack broke off and seemed to be searching the air in front of him for a suitable word.

"Adaptable? Courageous? Adventurous?" Daniel said, helpfully.

"Weird," Jack said, "I was going to say weird."

"Well I didn't eat most of it because I wanted to!" Daniel protested. "You eat MREs."

"So do you!"

"Not because I want to," Daniel reiterated.

They fell silent, glaring at each other for a moment until Jack finally said, "I'm having the bacon burger, extra onions, with cheese and buffalo fries."

Teal'c rumbled to life. "That does indeed sound good."

Daniel and Jack both swiveled their heads to look at him. Teal'c raised a single, eloquent eyebrow at their scrutiny. He tried staring back for a moment but they knew him too well and didn't back down even an inch. He fidgeted in his chair for a moment and then froze. Jaffa do not fidget.

"Insects," he said, as if the word left a bad taste in his mouth.

When he didn't elaborate, Jack's stare got narrower and Daniel's got more intense.

"It was what I wanted to eat," Teal'c admitted, "Insects. I needed food and that was what I craved."

"Is that what you're craving now?" Daniel asked. "Because I know a place across town – well it's actually a food truck but they always park in the same place. They serve all kinds of insects, fried, boiled, sautéed –"

"Daniel!" Jack snapped. "If you don't shut up _I'm_ going to lose my appetite."

Daniel looked blank for a moment, eyes darting back and forth behind his glasses like startled fish in a bowl. Then, as if realizing that not everyone had a stomach made of cast iron, he rerouted his thoughts.

"So, I thought I'd have the Philly steak and cheese," he said, brightly.

Silence met his comment. He set the menu aside and leaned forward, towards Teal'c.

"You need something to get the 'taste memory' out of your head."

"Taste memory?" Teal'c repeated.

"That's how I think of it," Daniel said, "It's like a…a…a… an oral memory. I needed to eat something else right away because durian actually kind of tastes like it smells."

"Daniel!" Jack snapped again.

"So," Daniel went on briskly, as if Jack hadn't spoken, still addressing Teal'c. "Don't you usually get the Beast? That triple burger that comes on a pike? And the endless fries?"

Teal'c eyebrow went up. "Indeed," he replied.

Teal'c shifted again, eyed the menu and then looked from Jack to Daniel. They were not Jaffa. They were not warriors like the ones he had once known. But he was proud of them. He was proud of what they did as a team. They had given him something worth fighting for.

He was honored by their friendship. They were both trying to hide it but their concern was flickering in the shadows of their eyes.

Jaffa do not die of starvation.

"Perhaps," he said, slowly. "I could try having one of those."

"Well get whatever you want," Jack said, relief obvious in his tone even as he tried to sound cavalier, "and dessert, don't forget dessert. Get two."

"Two?" Teal'c said. There was the barest glimmer of a smile in his eyes.

"Sure. I'm going to." Tossing a wicked grin in Daniel's direction he finished. "After all, Daniel's paying."

(0)


End file.
